Daniela Vega: the transgender star lighting up the film industry
Following her breakthrough role in Oscar-nominated Chilean film A Fantastic Woman, the actor talks about finding her voice, her diva grandmother, and winding up conservatives
You have to be one hell of a performer to take the title role in a film called A Fantastic Woman and convince the world that, yes, your character truly is a fantastic woman and you are too. And if you’re a largely unknown actor in only your second movie, it takes some quite remarkable self-assurance. But, a decade after transitioning as female, and a year after her breakthrough role dazzled the Berlin film festival, Chilean newcomer Daniela Vega is fully enjoying the rewards of being fantastic and on her own terms. She didn’t model her character in the film on any screen stars, she says, and the same goes for discovering her own identity as a woman. “Soy muy yo,” she says – “I’m very much me.”
Directed by Sebastián Lelio , A Fantastic Woman, the follow-up to his acclaimed female-centred drama Gloria, has been the toast of the festival circuit over the past year and is now heading for the Academy Awards, where it’s up for best foreign language film. It’s a magnificent work, stylish, playful and highly serious and, despite its protagonist’s sometimes harrowing ordeals, exuberantly uplifting. But what seals the film’s brilliance is Vega’s extraordinary portrayal of Marina, a young trans woman facing intense social hostility. It may be that, as Juliet Jacques suggested in a recent Guardian article, that in playing someone whose experience is in some ways close to hers, a trans actor such as Vega is able to bring a special bonus of “emotional memory” to her performance. But regardless of the viewer’s curiosity as to whether or not Vega essentially “is” Marina, there’s no denying that she brings a depth, sophistication and resilience to the role.
There is no way a real man would think this chubby guy is female any more than a real man would finance a unicorn farm but the pretend industry (Films, entertainment etc) is always going ga-ga over the latest gimcrack gimmick.
There is no such thing as a transexual as God creates only males and females.
Now, there can be no doubt that Daniel is a very disturbed male but that he remains the same male he was born is indisputable and nobody is going to be helped by going along with the new language which is meant to obscure science and truth not to reveal it.
There is no such thing as a transexual as God creates only males and females.
Now, there can be no doubt that Daniel is a very disturbed male but that he remains the same male he was born is indisputable and nobody is going to be helped by going along with the new language which is meant to obscure science and truth not to reveal it.